programming: usb emulation

The native USB capabilities of the Arno’s microcontroller come with some extra perks. Like the Arduino Leonardo, the Arno can act like a USB keyboard or a USB mouse. In other words, you can make the Arno type just like a keyboard in a MS Word document or paint with the mouse in a graphics program. You can access these functions through the Keyboard and Mouse objects. You can find a complete list of these functions and examples in the reference section of the Arduino website. We will also use these functions in some of our projects. A word of warning: these objects can cause problems. Imagine trying to load a sketch on the Arno while it is moving the mouse around and clicking on different icons. The Arduino reference page suggests that you only create these objects after pressing a button or after a delay of 10 seconds or so and then you get rid of the object once they’ve done their work. This is good advice.